Butterfly
by almostyourangel
Summary: Based off "Butterfly" by VC Andrews. I'm writing 4 Outers stories based off the Orphan series by VC, 1st is Butterfly ft. Hotaru. Once adopted by loving parents, Hotaru blossoms into a world of ballet and beauty. However, shes dancing on a fragile spider
1. Last Chance

Hey everyone! Me 'n' Cheebz, back wit ANOTHER chapterized fic and here we go! This is a new   
series, based off the Orphan series by V.C. Andrews. This one is called "Butterfly", obviously, and it's  
about Hotaru. So here we go.  
  
Butterfly  
Prologue  
Last Chance  
  
"Now, remember, Hotaru," hissed Kaolinite, narrowing her already beady black eyes at me and squinching  
up her almost non-existant mouth. "This is your best chance; it could be your *last* chance." She  
continued relentlessly, watching me with those eyes as I cringed at her following, equally harsh words.  
"Many people think you're sickly, Hotaru. You're so small, so frail. So very pale. (AN: Check it out,  
people! Kaorinite can rhyme!) You just look *so sick*.   
  
"I'm not sickly, or frail!" I insisted in my soft whisper. It's true, though--I *am* very small. I was an   
extremely premature baby, almost deadly premature. My mother died during my birth, and my father  
died while saving my short life in an explosion when I was still a small girl. Ever since I've, been living   
in foster families and orphanages, dotted in various places across the country, and much smaller   
than normal children my age. Just yesterday, Tommy Prefontaine--this *really* mean jerk in my   
orphanage--had called me Bashful the Dwarf because of my height and shyness, inferior to his own   
bossy 6'2".   
  
Kaolinite smiled her sarcastically acommodating smile at me. "Whatever, ahem, *dear*. Just...Don't  
screw it up, okay?" She leaned closer to me, her face inches from my own, and whispered harshly:  
"Don't you dare mess this up." She straightened and returned her voice to it's normal faux pleasant  
tone. "So, let's bring them in, shall we?" She lowered her voice again. "They know a lot about you,  
Hotaru, and for some reason they still want you. You're an adorable girl--it's too bad you're really  
twelve insetead of six. You look as though you're half your age..." She broke off as a knock came   
at the door. She treated me to another of her sardonic smiles as she stood to answer it.  
  



	2. Quite Unattractive

Chapter one, up already. ^_^v I have a whole bunch to post, so here we go!  
  
Butterfly  
Chapter One  
Quite Unattractive  
  
Kaolinite is actually quite pretty, despite her lack of lips and permanently narrowed her eyes. When  
I first came to this orphanage, I was with my twelfth--or was it thirteenth?--pair of foster parent,   
and she was funny and charming. She looked so pretty.  
  
But then they left and her expressiont turned cold...She didn't look quite so appealing.  
  
"Hotaru!" Hissed Kaolinite. I crashed back to reality and looked around, startled, until I finally  
realized that I had slouched down in my chair as I reflected on the orphanage owner/manager. I  
imagined I looked quite unattractive and sat up quickly.  
  
Kaolinite glared at me, then turned and spoke in a much nicer tone. "Mr. and Mrs Kensington, if  
you would please step this way?" She asked pleasantly. A tall, kind-looking man stepped into the room   
and smiled at me, and I immediately felt better.  
  
He was very attractive, in his mid-to-late thirties, I would have guessed. He had light brown hair  
with natural honey-gold highlights, and friendly brown eyes that flashed golden against the light.  
He was lean and fit, I noticed happily, not at all like the fat, balding older men who usually come to   
see me with their wives. This could be my new father? I decided to do my best to make the interview  
go well.  
  
My eyes returned to the door as the man coiled himself into a chair, waiting for my could-be mother  
who promised to be beautiful. Surely a man like this wouldn't marry anyone less than a beauty queen.  
Finally, she came, but she wasn't at all what I expected... 


	3. Most Unexpected

Chapter two, up 'n' runnin...  
  
Chapter Two  
Most Unexpected  
  
I'm sure my mouth dropped open.  
  
My maybe-mother certainly was beautiful, yes, with honey-gold hair and sparkling blue eyes. She looked  
like every cherished idea of a fairy: Very petite, like me, but she seemed delicate and dainty, not  
undergrown and shrimpy like me.  
  
She had full, pink lips that lit in a radiant smile when she caught sight of me. I gulped and felt a bit  
dizzy: She was stunning.  
  
Yes, beautiful, and certainly fit for this strong, handsome man. The only thing wrong with the   
breathtaking picture of a pixie she painted was...  
  
She was in a wheelchair.  
  
The odd thing about it was, she was wearing what I thought were ballet slippers.   
  
*But why,* the logical part of my brain questioned, *Is she wearing *dancing* shoes if she can't even  
*walk*?* I shushed the mean-spirited words and forced my wandering mind back to Kaolinite. She  
was, of course, glaring at me, and I jumped to my feet.   
  
"Pleased to meet you," I said in a barely audible voice, shaking the man's hand. "I'm Hotaru."   
  
"Yes, I know," he said, smiling. "My name is Theodore, Thedore Kensington, but just call me Theo."  
  
"Okay," I whispered, staring up at him shyly. I turned to the woman in the wheelchair and gently shook  
her hand. She looked so delicate and fragile, like glass--I was afraid of breaking her.  
  
"I'm Clarissa Kensington," she said cheerfully, beaming at Theo. "But just call me mom.  



	4. Standard Procedure

Chapter 3.......Review, please!  
  
Butterfly  
Chapter 3  
Standard Procedure  
  
  
"We'll take her," Clarissa declared ten minutes later. Though I was still in shock, I couldn't help but  
feel that I'd been bought.  
  
Kaolinite smiled somewhat stiffly. "There *is* the matter of signing a few papers..." She said, her   
voice strict and slightly irritated.  
  
Clarissa shook back her golden curls and replied in an equally haughty voic, "Lovely, then. Hotaru,   
possibly you could wheel me outside? It's such a beautiful day, and I'm not all that heavy." She clasped  
her hands, gazing at her lap, and looked for all the world like a little girl with her diminitive cherub  
features: All big, pleading innocent blue eyes and golden baby-doll curls.   
  
"Um, sure," I mumbled, looking uncertainly at Kaolinite. Her face looked stiff and plastic, a   
Barbie-Doll smile frozen on her heavily lipsticked mouth. "These papers require both signatures," she  
announced, appearing to be forcing the words from those fascinatingly bright lips. Clarissa waved  
her hand as she gestured for me to wheel her chair to the door. I stood, unsure. Kaolinite smiled  
tightly and motioned for me to take Clarissa up on her request.   
  
"It's not standard procedure..." She began, her voice strained. "But carry on." She shouldn't have   
bothered. Clarissa and I were already out the door.   
  
***  
  
"I want you to tell me all about yourself!" Declared Clarissa as I pushed her wheelchair across our  
somewhat shabby garden. "I mean, I know the basics, of course. But I want to know about *you*,  
Hotaru." I blinked. No one had ever wanted to know about *me* before.  
  
"For example, what do you like to do? Have you ever had any training in the arts?"  
  
"The arts?" I asked, feeling foolish, stupid, clumsy.  
  
"Acting...Singing...Ballet, perhaps?"  
  
"Oh, no," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not that lucky, ma'am."   
  
"Oh. Well...You will be. You'll be that lucky," she announced with an intensity that scared me. "Oh,"  
she added after a moments reflection. "Do you like music?"  
  
I paused. "Yes, I do like listening to it. We don't get many chances to, though, with living in the orphanage  
you see."  
  
Clarissa nodded. "It must have been very hard for you," she replied, studying me intently.  
  
I stared at my hands, folded in my lap. I had stopped her chair at a bench and, at her request, sat  
down on it. "It was."  
  
There was a long stretch of silence and then she muttered, "Where on earth is that man?" As if on  
cue, the door to the orphanage swung open and Theo hurried out. He saw us and a big smile graced  
his face.  
  
He came over, laid a hand on my shoulder. "You're ours," he said simply, both of us watching Clarissa  
beam. She looked so happy, I expected her to jump from her wheelchair and spin me around. As I  
watched her radiant face, Theo smiled down at me and pulled me close. "Let's go home," he said kindly.  
  



End file.
